Health implications of natural radioactivity in spring water used for drinking in Harnai, Balochistan

ABSTRACT

Measurements of radiological health hazards through radionuclides present in drinking water are useful for public health studies, which give estimation of public exposure. In Harnai, most of the population is using spring water for drinking, in which 19% population is using protected spring water and 15% population is using unprotected spring water. Therefore, this study has been conducted to estimate the radiological health hazards associated with radionuclides present in spring water using HPGe detector. Average values of ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K were found to be 1.75, 1.34 and 48.08 mBq/l, respectively. The average values of radium equivalent (Ra_eq), absorbed dose (D_R) and external (H_ex) and internal hazards (H_in) indices were found to be 7.35 mBq/l, 0.0036 nGy/h, 1.99 × 10⁻⁵ and 2.47 × 10⁻⁵, respectively. The calculated values of annual effective doses for different age groups were found to be higher in the age group of 12–7 years compared with the other age groups. However, all values of Ra_eq, H_ex, H_in and annual effective doses were found to be below recommended world average values. Therefore, it is concluded that spring water is safe from radiological health hazards associated with natural radioactivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Spring water
• natural radioactivity
• absorbed dose
• HPGe
• Balochistan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.